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Magali Bragard/Columbia Pictures Zoe Saldana, as a woman bent on vengeance, and her not-so-little friend in “Colombiana,” directed by Olivier Megaton. She Walks in Beauty, and Brings Along a Bazooka By MIKE HALE Published: August 25, 2011

Refusing to believe what the evidence is telling him, the F.B.I. agent RECOMMEND chasing the implacable killer in “Colombiana” snarls: “We’re not TWITTER looking for a woman. It’s not possible.” LINKEDIN

E-MAIL More About This Movie Apparently he hasn’t been watching PRINT Overview enough Luc Besson movies. The director of this potboiler revenge REPRINTS New York Times Review fantasy may be Olivier Megaton (a SHARE great action-director name, even if it is Cast, Credits & Awards pronounced may-gah-TONE). But the Readers' Reviews guiding spirit is clearly that of Mr. Besson, a writer and producer of the film, who can claim to have created and continually perfected the lethal-woman-in-her- underwear genre to which “Colombiana” belongs.

Mr. Besson’s previous avenging waifs have included Anne Parillaud (in the foundational “Femme Nikita”), a very young Natalie Portman (“The Professional”) and an orange- TicketWatch: Theater Offers by E-Mail haired Milla Jovovich (“The Fifth Element”). His latest muse is Zoe Saldana, the blue- Sign up for ticket offers from Broadway shows and other skinned heroine of “Avatar,” who proves to be equally adept at the essential skill of advertisers. [email protected] wielding large guns while wearing skimpy clothing. (Well, maybe not as adept as Ms. Change E-mail Address | Privacy Policy Jovovich, who seems to have been genetically engineered for this kind of thing.)

What’s not required is the creation of an actual character; the best an actress can hope for MOST E-MAILED RECOMMENDED FOR YOU is to look good and, if the director and screenwriter cooperate, maintain her dignity and sense of humor. Ms. Saldana, playing an almost supernaturally skilled hit woman and articles in the past [email protected] parkour enthusiast whose larger mission is to avenge the murder of her Colombian drug- 1 month All Recommendations dealing parents, has to work hard in that regard. 1. Google Lets Wi-Fi Owners Opt Out of Registry That’s because “Colombiana” isn’t content to be a comic-book joyride (though it is that); it has pretensions to a more turgid class of revenge melodrama, along the lines of Tony 2. South African Seeks to Heal Party Split Scott’s “Man on Fire.” It also has pretensions, period: Mr. Megaton sprinkles in homages to Francis Ford Coppola (Ms. Saldana’s rising out of the water like Martin Sheen in 3. WORLD BRIEFING | MIDDLE EAST Arab League Asked to Act on Syria “Apocalypse Now”) and Brian De Palma (the climactic sequence at a drug lord’s lair is redolent of “Scarface”). The overall effect is distancing; there are some early comic 4. American Hikers to Be Freed in 2 Days, moments that have you laughing along with the movie, but eventually the clashing tones Ahmadinejad Says and preposterousness just have you laughing. 5. South Korean Family Conglomerates Pressured Ms. Saldana has one other thing to overcome: the presence of a wide-eyed 13-year-old actress named Amandla Stenberg, who plays the protagonist, Cataleya Restrepo, at the 6. U.N. Accuses Yemen of Using Deadly Force time her parents are gunned down, in the first 10 minutes of the movie. Her portrayal of in Protests the future deadly-but-sensitive killer is such a perfect combination of trembling emotion, action chops and deadpan humor that Ms. Saldana, no matter how sexily professional her 7. A French Feast From a Political Pot work is, spends the rest of the movie failing to live up to it.

8. Israeli Company Taken Off Iran Trade “Colombiana” is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned). Guns, missiles, torture, Blacklist sharks. 9. OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR COLOMBIANA Protect Our Right to Anonymity

Opens on Friday nationwide. 10. OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR Veto a State, Lose an Ally Directed by Olivier Megaton; written by Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen; director of Go to Your Recommendations » photography, Romain Lacourbas; edited by Camille Delamarre; music by Nathaniel What’s This? | Don’t Show Mechaly; production design by Patrick Durand; costumes by Olivier Bériot ; produced by Mr. Besson and Ariel Zeitoun; released by TriStar Pictures. Running time: 1 hour 45 minutes.

WITH: Zoe Saldana (Cataleya), Jordi Molla (Marco), Lennie James (Agent Ross), Michael Vartan (Danny), Amandla Stenberg (young Cataleya) and Cliff Curtis (Emilio).

A version of this review appeared in print on August 26, 2011, on page C15 of the New York edition with the headline: She Walks in Beauty, and Brings Along a Bazooka.

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August 29th, 2011 4:32 pm Rating: 1. At Least This Flick Makes An Effort "C" merits a strong two-circle rating. The multiple body doubles for "ZS", as well as "AS." who portrays Cataleya at 10, perform admirably.

– amcartemis, austin, texas

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